Corrections officer is suspended, demoted State car he used allegedly stolen sold by woman

June 21, 1993|By Roger Twigg | Roger Twigg,Staff Writer

A Division of Correction hearing officer has been given a 15-day suspension without pay after a female acquaintance stole his state-owned car from a Salisbury motel and sold it for $40 worth of crack, according to police sources.

State police records identified the corrections employee as Kevin Richardson of Baltimore. Mr. Richardson, who was responsible for hearing inmate disciplinary cases at institutions around the state, was suspended last Monday after a hearing before Frank Mazzone, an assistant commissioner of corrections, police sources said.

Mr. Richardson, 32, was also demoted to the job of correctional case management specialist, a position where he will examine the records of inmates to determine whether they can be reassigned to lesser security classifications, the sources said.

The incident occurred June 10, three days after Mr. Richardson, a nine-year veteran, went to the Eastern Shore to begin a week of inmate hearings at the Eastern Correctional Institution.

Mr. Richardson picked up the woman in a Salisbury restaurant and left with her in the state car. That night the couple went to a motel in Salisbury, the sources said.

At some point, the woman, whom police identified as a cocaine abuser, took the keys to the 1990 blue Chevrolet Cavalier and drove off.

Soon, Mr. Richardson reported the vehicle stolen, police said.

Investigators later learned that vehicle had been sold to two men for $40 worth of crack, the sources said.

Six days after the theft, Salisbury city police spotted the state vehicle at Isabella and Church streets. When they approached the vehicle the two male occupants got out and ran. Neither was caught. They and the woman suspected of stealing the car were being sought, police said.